How Should You Care for Your Hearing Aids?

Hearing aids are much more than just simple devices for those experiencing hearing loss, rather, they serve as tools that can help unlock a fantastic quality of life, doing so in the most actualized and confident manner possible. For this reason, it’s worth investing in great and reliable hearing aids, speaking to your audiologist regularly, and of course, maintaining and cleaning your hearing aid as appropriate. Yet for those who are new to wearing hearing aids, it may be hard to figure out just what practices you should adopt into your schedule to help the longevity of such a device. Once you develop an understanding with daily maintenance, you’ll realize that caring for your hearing aids is not a burden, but a great way to maintain such a valued and necessary piece of assigned medical equipment. Without further ado, let’s get started:

Daily Efforts

It’s good to get into the daily habit of caring for your hearing aids, just as you would when taking care of your own hygiene. For instance, finding a place to store your hearing aid each night (in a cool, dry, safe place), is important. It’s not uncommon for wearers to buy small carry holders and hard-shell containers used to store such devices overnight. Changing your wax filter is also important, as the natural functioning of your ear canal will expose your hearing aid to naturally-built-up wax, and this can be even more frequent in the warmer months.

Cleaning

Of course, cleaning is essential too. Earwax can sometimes touch other areas of the hearing aid aside from the filter, and so cleaning that off daily can be important. Avoiding moisture when cleaning, such as by using a small cloth or a soft brush, is essential. Don’t get your hearing aid wet by using sprays or other water-based products, and remove it when taking a shower or cleaning your face. Furthermore, make sure that you continually clean the area you use to store your hearing aid in an appropriate case. Also, make sure to pay attention to cleaning your ears, such as using cotton buds to clean the outside of the ears (but never in the ear canal), and keeping behind the ear clean, too.

General Handling

Replacing the batteries of your hearing aid is of course important, and having spares around should the batteries die when you least expect it can be essential. Of course, careful handling of your hearing aid should be a practice that becomes second nature, but it might mean you have to adjust your daily behavior. For instance, swimming in public pools will require a removal and careful storage of your hearing aid, as well as making sure you are fully clean and dry before reattaching it again. With this advice, we hope you can care for your hearing aid as appropriate. For any other issues, speaking to your audiologist or visiting a professional hearing aid cleaning and repair service can be helpful.